A retired University of Minnesota-Duluth professor known for his conspiracy theories on John F. Kennedy's assassination, the 9/11 attacks and the Paul Wellstone plane crash has found himself in the news again -- this time for claiming the U.S. government was involved in the Newtown, Conn., school shootings.

In his online writings, James Fetzer cites chief among his credentials his ties to UMD, a fact lamented by at least one professor at another university.

Fetzer, also an author and former Marine Corps officer, claims in an online journal that Israeli Mossad death squads and the U.S. government might have been behind the school shootings in Connecticut. At the end of his piece, Fetzer describes himself as an emeritus professor at UMD, and he uses his UMD e-mail address as his contact.

UMD officials say Fetzer has the right to express his views -- but he also has the responsibility to make clear he's not speaking for the university.

Other retired UMD faculty members have been identified as emeriti when writing opinion pieces in the pages of the News Tribune, including physician Robert Goldish and American Indian studies professor Robert Powless.

Fetzer's Newtown conspiracy theory earned him a mention by writer Michael Moynihan in the online magazine "Daily Beast," an article titled: "Newtown Conspiracy Theories: Obama, Iran, and Other Culprits." Beneath that, a secondary headline reads: "The government was behind the school massacre. Wait, it was Obama,
in a ruse to take our guns away. No, it was Iran! Israel! Batman! Michael Moynihan on the paranoid wing's 'real truth' about Sandy Hook."

Fetzer writes in his online column, published on "Press TV and "Veterans Today": "The Sandy Hook massacre appears to have been a psy op intended to strike fear in the hearts of Americans by the sheer brutality of the massacre, where the killing of children is a signature of terror ops conducted by agents of Israel."

The act, Fetzer said in an interview with the News Tribune, "is part of an escalating series of covert operations intended to create hysteria in the American people in order to support gun control legislation that completely subverts the Second Amendment."

Fetzer lists his UMD e-mail address as the way for readers to contact him, which was granted to him as part of his retirement package. He says he doesn't speak for UMD and that UMD hasn't suggested he refrain from connecting himself to the university.

"There is something called freedom of research, freedom of inquiry," he said, "which the University of Minnesota has respected. I can't imagine why any university would want to discourage its faculty from exercising their independent thought and critical reasoning ability."

Faculty, including faculty emeriti, are protected by the Regents Policy on Academic Freedom and Responsibility, according to Andrea Schokker, executive vice chancellor of academic affairs at UMD. The policy protects the freedom of creative expression and to speak or write on matters of public interest without institutional discipline or restraint. That comes with the responsibility to make it clear that one isn't speaking for the institution, she said.

But to the average person who reads the Fetzer piece, it appears Fetzer represents UMD, said Donna Halper, an associate professor of communication at Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass. Fetzer identifies himself as a UMD professor emeritus and notes his faculty page on UMD's website.

"For a professor to be spreading stereotypes under the guise of academic freedom is profoundly disappointing," said Halper, whose earlier career in radio led her to Duluth several times. She found Duluth to be tolerant and compassionate, she said, and she was surprised to read Fetzer's work, which she classified as a "fringe view."

"I'm not saying he doesn't have the right to speak, but ... when it comes from a professor, it makes me wonder: What did he teach his students?" asked Halper, who teaches courses on philosophy and communication ethics. "Here you have someone who is allegedly an educated person spreading such uneducated opinions in the name of Duluth. That's outrageous."

Fetzer, of Oregon, Wis., and a professor of philosophy, spent 35 years teaching at universities, 19 of those years at UMD. He was awarded a McKnight Professorship from the University of Minnesota in 1996, which included a $100,000 research grant. He retired from UMD in 2006.

He has an Internet radio show, has written more than two dozen books and has become a well-known voice among those who claim that Kennedy was assassinated by his own government. He also theorizes that the U.S. government was involved in the Wellstone plane crash and the 9/11 attacks.

As a philosopher, Fetzer said, he cares about the truth, and his scientific research has revealed that "the government lies to us."

I've posted limited information about myself because I post on topics that could get me in trouble in my professional life. Anonymity prevents dipshits on this forum from affecting my life outside of CP. I know it's hard to comprehend that someone can have a life outside of CP, but it happens frazzie.

I work. I know it's hard to process in your simple little mind, but just because people believe in a social safety net doesn't mean they use it.

The fact that you even entertain thoughts that the government could use a mass shooting like that as a psy op to confiscate guns says everything about your lack of mental capacity.

It's people like you that don't understand that government's don't want their people to be armed. They want complete control. That's it. Plain and simple. Taking away citizens gun rights is the only way to get complete control. The 2nd amendment was put in there to protect citizens from abusive/corrupt govts that got out of control.

There are clips of Rham Emanuel (however u spell his name) saying shit like "Never let a good crisis go to waste, because then govt is able to do things they normally wouldn't be able to do".

FRAZzlednimrOD says he believes the police who said they found the AR-15 in the car. However, nowhere has a police officer been quoted as saying they found an AR-15 in the car. In the early morning of Dec 15th, NBC (irony) seems to be the ONLY source reporting that officials said there were only four handguns recovered inside the school. This writeup contains a video of Lt. Paul Vance where he never says there were four handguns retrieved, and in writing NBC says the four handguns "could not be confirmed."

Lanza, 20, who was identified as the gunman by police for the first time on Sunday, shot his way into the school on Friday, firing away at students and staff with a Bushmaster AR 15 rifle, officials said.

He also carried two handguns and hundreds of bullets in "multiple" high-capacity magazines of about 30 rounds each, and had a fourth weapon in reserve - a shotgun in his car outside, Connecticut state police Lieutenant Paul Vance said.

"The Bushmaster was used ... in the school in its entirety and the handgun was used to take his own life," Vance said...

In this interview, the chief medical examiner Wayne Carver says "all wounds that he knew of were caused by the long weapon," and that the rifle used being found in the car was "incorrect."

This post by Radar Chief contains footage of the police finding a gun in the car, and Radar Chief (and many others responding to the youtube) says that's not an AR-15, it's a shotgun.

Now, people have said the media will never offer a retraction on whether an AR-15 was used. That said, NBC may not offer a retraction about their "four handguns on person and AR-15 in trunk" report. However, conspiracy theorists wouldn't want them to, because the source of "a lot of [bologna]" totally evaporates.